Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/30

24 the first teacher of the English school. In 1772, the state of his health rendering a voyage to a warm climate advisable, he resigned his station, after having performed its duties for the space of nineteen years.

The professorship of the languages was originally filled by Paul Jackson, who, in the year 1758, left the institution on account of ill health, and was succeeded by John Beveridge. This gentleman had, when young, taught a grammar school in Edinburgh, under the patronage of the celebrated Ruddiman, from whom, as well as from other men of note, he brought with him to this country strong testimonials both of his ability and good conduct. When invited to connect himself with the Philadelphia college, he was residing at Hartford, in Connecticut, where he had for some time been conducting a private Latin school with great success. As a classical scholar he was thought to be inferior to none in the colonies. Some of his compositions in Latin are still extant in our older Magazines, and evince a familiarity with that language, which, with his long habit of teaching, must have well qualified him for his station in the college. Upon his death in 1767, James Davidson, who had previously kept a school in Newark, was appointed to the professorship.

Of the earliest mathematical professor, very little seems to be known. His name was Theophilus Grew, and it would appear, from a slight notice contained in an article of the American Magazine before alluded to, that he had "long been an approved teacher of mathematics and astronomy" in Philadelphia. He was attached to the institution at its origin, and continued so till his death in 1759. Hugh Williamson, a graduate of the school, succeeded to his station.

This brief account of the early professors, will not be thought misplaced by those who feel an interest in the spread of learning, science, and the arts of civilization in a young country, and are willing to do justice to those who made the promotion of this object the business of their lives.